How a government shutdown would affect you

Forget visiting any national parks because they would close. But, you still could send mail because the postal service would continue functioning during a government shutdown. NBC’s Michelle Franzen reports.

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This content comes from Closed Captioning that was broadcast along with this program.

>> reporter: tour boats loaded with visitors to the statute of liberty and
ellis island
today. but come tuesday,
lady liberty
and
national parks
coast-to-coast will close if the government shuts down.

>>the fact that the statute of liberty could be held hostage, is appalling to me.

>> reporter: the smithsonian will also close, long with yosemite, mountain rushmore. the leisure destinations that are the
bread and butter
to surrounding businesses.

>>if that happened, it would shut us down. we come out here doing ligake tests.

>> reporter: the last time the government shut down was in the mid-'90s for three weeks.

>>we have employees that have families to take care of, bills to pay. we are very concerned about the -- about the effect on them for any sort of shutdown.

>> reporter: the impact to
national parks
visitors is just the start of a
ripple effect
. an estimated 800,000 civilian workers will be furloughed. government back home loans will be delayed. and if the shutdown drags on to
october 17th
, the stakes grow even higher.

>>if congress doesn't raise the debt ceiling and the
u.s. treasury
can't meet its obligations, that could raise
interest rates
,
credit card
rates and plunge the economy back into recession.

>> reporter: there are still some programs that will remain untouched if the government shuts down. including mail
service delivery
, funding for
social security
and also
air traffic controllers
and screeners at airport.